Emile Smith Rowe was handed his first start for Arsenal last night, and the 18 year old acquitted himself well in the 3-1 win over Brentford.
He was particularly lively in the first period, showing real pace and drive, and even up to the point of his 63rd minute substitution he was working hard and making tackles as we protected the lead.
His performance, and his general quality, is something that some of his more senior teammates were happy to expand upon afterwards.
Danny Welbeck, who scored twice to take his tally to the season to four, said, “He’s a great player, we see it every day in training and he’s had lots of great performances in the under-23s.
“We see the ability when he has got, and everyone has welcomed him and tried to give him advice and he has a lot of talent.
“We hope to see a lot more of him in the first team.”
While Henrikh Mkhitaryan has also been impressed with what he’s seen from the attacking midfielder.
“I am very happy for him because he did a good game, and for the other players as well,” said the Armenian international.
“Everyone showed that everyone is ready to play and it doesn’t matter what kind of game it’s going to be, Premier League, Carabao Cup, FA Cup or Europa league.
“Everyone is ready to play and to help Arsenal succeed.”
Ready made to replace a Ramsey who has an inflated opinion of his worth?
Or more likely Rambo’s agent looking for a huge commission from his client.
“I am very happy for him because he did a good game, and for the other players as well,”
“Everyone is ready to play and to help Arsenal succeed.”
I’d like to see the little book the players get given with the standard interview phrases in them. There must be others that we can think of, that we’ve heard a lot.
‘little bit handbrake’
“we have to take what we learned here and kick on, keep improving”
So far what unlike about him the most is two things. He seems to have a good positional sense offensively and defensively. He makes good choices on the pitch in terms of setting the tempo.
In particular he was part of a counter attack and kept the run going but after he realized there wasn’t a positive option he turned and slowed down the attack. Passed it to el neny who made a very good long pass again the restarted the attack. Just excellent.
One might even say… fuckin’ excellent?
Wonder if he’s anywhere near staking a claim to that right wing place yet. Ozil is wasted out there, and though I’m a Ramsey fan, I think we’d almost certainly have had more success offensively with ozil central. Would like to see iwobi out on the right- not as though we’d be losing his shooting capabilities. Try him like a right-sided Hleb, zero goals but invaluable in breaking defensive lines.
Maybe. Welack options there. The best thing for the squad would have been to have retained Nelson. Weird decision. Worth also noting before we get carried away with Smith Rowe the famous adage by Wenger that everyone thinks he has the prettiest wife. Remember just recently a match up against Chelsea pre-season where their young Hudson Odoi blew away Smith Rowe. He has a bright future Smith Rowe but people get too caught up by the latest shiny new thing (remember Zelalem, The Jeff) We frankly need to be investing in a ready made option at right wing. We should… Read more »
Wont the right wing belong to Miki if Ozil shifted to the center tho?
Not ready enough to replace Ramsey.
But showing great promise nonetheless.
Only upside for him.
Still would have preferred to have kept Nelson within our periphery and sent Smith Rowe out but I suppose the thinking is the (slightly) older player needs more playing time…although it is at advantage to him rather than the team at the moment which lacks wide players.
Rowe is one for the now and the future. The future is really great for the Arsenal as we keep churning out these talented youths.